SXSW edition of controversial Facebook hook-up app launches

The night before SXSW started, posters promoting the SXSW Bang With Friends app were taped up to pillars throughout the Austin Convention Center, the hub of SXSW. 13 hours later they were removed by SXSW volunteers, who were told to take them down because they were “not approved,” and that all posters had to be approved.

[media-credit id=2 align=”aligncenter” width=”320″][/media-credit] A photo of the homepage of the SXSW edition of the Bang With Friends app on Facebook, sxsw.bangwithfriends.com

The Bang With Friends app on Facebook, should you use it, displays a photo-list of your Facebook friends of whichever sex you choose. Underneath each photo is a “Down to Bang” button. If you press that button for a particular friend, and that particular friend also uses the app, and presses the “Down to Bang” button on you, both of you will be notified.

The SXSW edition of the Bang With Friends app works exactly the same way.

[media-credit id=2 align=”alignnone” width=”240″][/media-credit] The founder and CEO of social media ad agency Crown Social, Zach Huntting, puts up posters for a client the evening of Thursday, March 8 at the Austin Convention Center, prior to the SXSW conference.

[media-credit id=2 align=”alignleft” width=”240″][/media-credit] SXSW volunteer Daisy Lopez removes the Bang With Friends SXSW posters from the Austin Convention Center the morning of Friday, March 8, the first day of SXSW. She said she was told the posters were “not approved” and that posters had to be approved in advance before being posted.

Tamara Chuang covers personal technology and local tech news for The Denver Post. She previously spent 10 years doing the same thing for The Orange County Register before taking a hiatus to move here and become a SAHM to a precocious toddler.

Laura Keeney is a business reporter with The Denver Post, covering aerospace, aviation and biotech. Over the last two decades, she's covered everything from agribusiness to punk rock. Keeney holds an AACSB-accredited MBA from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, NY.